Introduction
In this image: Lithograph or woodcut, circa 1892, several boys with crutches, at least one an amputee, working in a brush- and broom-making shop.
Physical, sensory, and neurological impairments are as old as humanity itself. Disability, however, results from a mismatch between the human environment and its inhabitants. For example, in an environment filled with stairs a wheelchair user is disabled, but if those stairs have ramps then the wheelchair user has access and therefore freedom of choice, like other citizens. A high-contrast strip near a curb informs a person with low vision of the boundary between street and sidewalk, and allows for safe travel around the City. And so it follows that the mission of the New York City Disability Rights Movement is to change the City’s human environment so that everyone has access, and to open people’s minds so that everyone has an opportunity to seek achievement, prosperity and fulfillment.
Disability in New York City first emerged as a demographic and social issue more than 150 years ago. The percentage of the population living with disabilities climbed rapidly during the middle of the nineteenth century, due to industrial accidents, infectious disease and environmental pollution. By the 1860s the city’s streets were thronged with unemployed, homeless and disabled men, women and children. This gave rise to the nation’s first wave of organizations focused on people with disabilities living in the general society—the Dickensian Disability Movement, of which the most important leader was May Darrach, the nation’s first disability activist.
There were significant efforts at self-advocacy by people with disabilities during the middle of the Twentieth Century, beginning in the 1930s with the League of the Physically Handicapped, and Federation of the Handicapped. After World War Two ended, disabled veterans formed Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) and the Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association (EPVA), co-founded by Robert and Lucille Moss. These efforts were real and significant, yet they were hampered by lingering paternalism toward people with disabilities, by the advocates’ own limited goals, and by the technological and other resources then available.
The modern New York City Disability Rights Movement arose in the early 1960s, thanks to a small group of determined, disabled New Yorkers, including Richard Match, Donald Broderick, Curtis Brewer, and Julius and Mollie Shaw¸ who realized that it was necessary to remake the world, that they might more fully participate in it. By 1963 a defined effort was under way, including groups such as the Architectural Barriers Committee. As the founders forced institutional changes and created governmental access via what is now known as the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, people like Eunice Fiorito became important in the growing movement.
By the end of the Sixties, a new generation of activists was reaching maturity, and they founded pivotal organizations like Disabled In Action, whose leaders include Carr Massi. They were joined by younger members of EPVA, like Terry Moakley, who helped lead the fight for accessible mass transit. By the late 1970s, the New York City Disability Rights Movement, with a now well-developed organizational base and political philosophy, had come of age. The fight for equal access is far from over, but recent victories in battles like the thirty year long campaign for accessible taxicabs, and the City’s 2015 designation of the month of July as Disability Pride Month—the first such designation anywhere—bring us closer to the day when all New Yorkers of all abilities and disabilities will be able to participate fully in the City’s life and commerce.
A tremendous amount of work remains to be done—the New York City Disability Rights Movement is a revolution still in progress—but the purpose of this website is to gather and set forth what has come before and the leaders who made it happen. And, of course, this website isn’t complete either. Check back frequently, because new entries are added regularly!
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